Companies To Watch

The Companies to Watch column spotlights small, entrepreneurial biopharma companies that are developing their own products (not just a platform) with little or no press coverage to date, and offering an interesting story involving useful business lessons.

At the end of every year since we began the monthly column, Companies to Watch, I have gone back to the featured companies and asked each one to send me a short assessment of its progress since it appeared in Life Science Leader.

Synspira is developing glycopolymer drugs for infection, inflammation, and congestion in the lungs. According CEO Shenda Baker, “We would like to see more companies in this space. But we are also looking forward to leading the way.”

“We are a vaccine company,” says CEO Mei Mei Hu. “We’re developing a new class of vaccines for endogenous proteins, leveraging a commercially successful technology platform in which we’ve invested more than 20 years.”

Acceleron has four drugs in development in the hematology, neuromuscular, and pulmonary disease areas. Its lead drug luspatercept has completed Phase 3 trials for treating myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).

CytoDyn’s expressed ambitions seem bold but reasonably free of hyperbole. It is only natural to hope for the best possible outcome here, considering the obvious need for new HIV and other immunological therapies.

LIFE SCIENCE LEADER BLOGS

Rob Wright provides insight into the categories and shared attributes of superbosses, as derived from 10 years of research and more than 200 interviews by Sydney Finkelstein, #23 on the Thinker50 2017 rankings.